1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a unified power window switch for a vehicle and, more particularly to a unified power window switch for a vehicle that can open and close all windows of the vehicle and further lock the windows.
2. Background Art
A power window switch for a vehicle is used to open and close a front left (FL; driver's seat side) window, a front right (FR; passenger's seat side) window, a rear left RL window and a rear right RR window.
Typically, a power window switch is mounted on front doors of a vehicle and another power window switch is mounted on rear doors. However, in light of the safety, a unified switch which is mounted on driver's seat and can be controlled by a driver may be preferred.
As depicted in FIG. 5, a typical unified power window switch comprises four separate switches for opening and closing FL, FR, RL and RR side windows, respectively, and lock switches for locking the respective windows. However, such a power window switch hardly serves as a ‘unified’ switch since it is composed of a plurality of separate switches, not a single switch. Due to the structure, a driver may feel inconvenient to operate the switches for opening and closing the respective windows.
Japanese Patent No. 2002-075132 discloses a window switch which includes a joystick-like operating element for opening and closing plural windows. With the joystick-like operating element, however, a driver cannot precisely perceive a direction of the operating element. For this reason, the driver oftentimes is required to visually confirm the direction of the operating element and the driver can be distracted, which can cause a serious safety problem.
The information disclosed in this Background of the Invention section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art that is already known to a person skilled in the art.